7 Essential Basics For Home Defense

7 Essential Basics For Home Defense

Below are 7 things that you should know in case you ever run into a real home invasion scenario. Now most of this stuff is applicable in other circumstances, but to keep it simple I’m going to mostly focused on home defense.

In order for me to get a good firm footing, I need to spread my feet a little apart, move my “firing leg” half step back, and then bend my knees.

After, I tightly grip the gun right outside its edge using my “firing hand.”

Next, I’m going to place the palm of my non-firing hand just right on top of the space where my firing hand is at.

Then using the same hand, I firmly wrap my fingers around my firing hand and underneath the trigger guard.

I’ll place the thumb of my non-firing hand down. Now, both of my hands are clamped and shelling the pistol.

Now, I’m going to raise the pistol to my target, lock my elbows and drop my chin in between my elbows as much as possible. I’m going to gain a front and rear sight picture while focusing on the front sight. Placing my finger on the trigger, I’ll slowly pull it to the rear.

And that’s how we get a firm firing grip and assume a basic firing stance.

2.Compensating for Over Penetration

So, what if a bad guy was standing between us and our child who’s sleeping in her room, how do we take care of this individual? How do we neutralize that target?

If we press out and pull the trigger, the bullet’s trajectory might not only go through the bad guy, but it might also go through the drywall of our child’s room and potentially kill him or her.

One of the ways that we can take of that angle and trajectory problem is to simply move, from left to right, or vice versa.

For instance, if we were pressed out and at the left side, we want to move side to side while keeping the weapon pointed at him. The trajectory angle of the bullet in this instance is at the right.

So, when we cracked out that round, not only does it take care of him, but it also does not over penetrate the area where we don’t want it to go.

And that area doesn’t necessarily have to be the room of our child. It could be two rooms, a closet, and then a bedroom.

Firearms today have ballistics that will penetrate two or three rooms.

We have to keep in mind that when we have a firearm, we can’t just move, shake, shoot, drop, and pull it. It doesn’t work that way. We see that in the movies, and it doesn’t work.

We have to gain the right angle. The only way that we’re going to gain the right angle is to practice it. We have to move inside our house. We have to know that we have a couch corner here; because if we were to move up, we could hit the couch.

If the bad guy moves (and he will) and crosses over, we may need to drop on one knee to gain the right angle.

By dropping the non-firing knee, we can support the firing hand knee and could bend more over.

Now, you see I’m pressed out with one hand. How many times have you practiced this shot? How about the turn over, how many times have you practiced that shot?

Your mouth will be gaping, sucking every ounce of oxygen in your immediate atmosphere into your body. Your lungs will never felt so full of oxygen, and you will pull the trigger.

And you will continue to pull the trigger until that threat is gone. So, when you go to a static range, and you’re in your stall and loading your magazines, put it in your gun, load your gun, run that target out, take a deep breath, and gain that sight picture.

That is only gun handling training that you’re doing. It is NOT gun fighting.

6.How to Pie a Corner

This is pieing a corner. There is a way to take a corner without exposing yourself any more than you have to. For this demonstration, the corner that I will be pieing is on my right side.

I am a right-handed shooter. But because I’m using a right-handed corner, I need to change my grip.

So, as I’ve earlier demonstrated about the firm firing grip, the void is filled by the palm of the non-shooting hand. I’m just going to reverse that grip.

I’m now going to move my hand over to my left hand, which is my firing hand. (I still have the same void.) I’ll take the palm of my non-shooting hand and fill that void, wrap my fingers around, and keep my thumbs down.

Can you see my fingers outside the trigger?

And that’s how you hold a gun.

So, let’s pie this corner.

I want to get as much standoff from this corner as possible. A lot of guys like to get up from the corner, stick their gun out like this,

and expose your left chest, which holds your lung,

a portion of your heart,

your left shoulder,

elbow,

hand, gun, and leg—all of these can be shot.

So, back off from the corner and step to the side where you cannot visually see your target.

In this way, you only expose a minimal amount of your body. What is exposed is the barrel of your gun. Your eye can pick up what your gun is pointing at. You’re not exposing any parts of your body more than you need to, and you can make a clean shot.

That’s pieing a corner.

7.Cover and Concealment

Cover and concealment. Cover is anything that would stop a bullet. Concealment is something that would keep you from being seen, but won’t stop a bullet.

In a residential house just like this one, you’re going to have walls that have sheetrock, insulation, and then on the interior side you’ll have sheetrock again. This wall will not stop a bullet.

Now, there are certain areas that you could gain a small amount of cover. And by small, I mean very small. But it maybe just enough for you to transition to another area, and that would be the door frames.

The door frames typically have studs that are two studs combined together. And they go over the door frame with the nice header.

These 2 studs combined will provide a small amount of resistance for that bullet. But understand that 2 2x4s is only going to cover about the size of your heart. So you leave the left and the right side of your chest, lungs, exposed.

So understand, should you get behind a wall, you still can be shot. You can still stop an intruder from attacking you by shooting through the walls.

The doors inside of a residence typically are hollow. As you can see here, very hollow, and a bullet can go right through this. So just by merely closing the door, you don’t stop a bullet. You do conceal yourself, if he doesn’t know you’re there.

And then it’s just hide and seek. But you’re not going to stop his bullet.

But just as this door won’t stop his bullet, it won’t stop yours either. So if you close this door and you hear him banging, “I’m coming in there. You better open up! I’m coming! I’m coming!”

Well, you do have an opportunity to neutralize that threat, by pointing your weapon and firing. When you fire, you want to fire from the door handle, to center mass, and up. Start from the door handle and work your way up.

You can see on this door handle, this door handle is set at just at my hips. Should you start your shot here, work your way up. You’re now hitting vital organs. You will incapacitate him, should you shoot him in the hips. But you can continue to shoot up. So use that as a point of reference.

Door handle, middle of the door, and up.

Remember the difference between cover and concealment. It could save your life.

EJ Owens proudly served his country for 14 years in the U.S. Army and Army National Guard, as an enlisted combat medic (91W) and a commissioned officer [Infantry – 11A]. EJ is a U.S. Army Hand-to-Hand Combatives Instructor, a Close Quarters Battle Instructor, and was selected for Executive Protection duties for various government officials during war time.

Really great info… each of the 7 basic Home Defense steps made so much sense. As the Brother said above, about it being common sense, I would love for that to be true for everyone. However I’m one of those, that have been in situations in which common sense seems to have “Left the Game” but I really enjoy these training steps. They allow Gun fighting Novices as myself to have a good foundation to build on…. With my family and home, the term Fight or Flight….will be 99.9 percent fight (no where to go Brother). Each step played well off the other, Pie a Corner, and Cover Concealment are very helpful in my situation. and last but not least. the statement you made about the difference in Practicing shooting and Practicing for a Gun fight.. I guess I have spent most of my time being more of a target. Today that changes…. Thanks EJ.

EJ: Great presentation.
I learned a lot, and I have had military training as well.
Sure are a lot of different considerations when you are thinking about family and kids in the picture or surroundings.

Great info! One of the thing I have done in my home is to place some cover in strategic areas of my house. Full bookcases will provide cover from almost any round you are likely to encounter in a home invasion so I placed these in key areas of my house to give me a protected firing position. Knowing my house’s layout and where to stand and fight will give me a key advantage. Sure the bad guy could use them but I know the layout and will move to another area and shoot through the wall or just wait them out. My wife will have called the police and I can wait if I need to. He will be wanting to get away once he realizes he s facing an armed and determined home owner, I just want him to get out or to end his aggression so I can wait if I need to. I practice moving through house in the dark with an empty gun so I know where the funnel’s are and how to move with no light on. Again, very good info but it does you no good if you don’t practice in your own home. Stay safe.

I would add; Get to the range and practice, practice, practice. Practice dry firing. Practce live firing. Practice at least once a month. Fire at least one full clip. Preferably a box and know how it will recoil. Know how much noise it makes. Know how much the pull will be. Know your weapon. Treat your weapon as if lives depend on it.

Most people do not practice. They do not have the habits of -NOT- placing finger on trigger until ready to fire. Their lack of familiarity will cause them to drop the weapon, fire blindly, or fire in error.

The large numbers of people who have purchased weapons in the last ten years is probably a net good for our society. I wish there was a way to have them get to the range and/or work with an instructor at least once a month. When you need a weapon is -not- the time to begin doing your homework. A bullet once fired cannot be recalled.

While most of this is “common sense”, it is NOT common practice!!! One reverts to what ones does “instinctively”. The amount of training to have those “new” actions become the norm is HUGE, unfortunately! AND that costs, time, ammo, range fees, etc! Not only that, but most ranges do NOT allow shooting from the draw or “reactive” shooting (i.e. rapid fire).

It is a known fact that LEOs (police officers) often have great difficulty in documenting a shooting event. So plans, as well intentioned and as noble as they may be, almost never follow what was scripted (plans fail since not everyone knows or has read the plan!)

Everything EJ states is absolutely correct. The problem is REALITY! I’ve been legally carrying, either with CCW/CHL and/or credentials for over 50 years and have had one or three “serious social discussions”. In my cases, 1 shot in each instance is all it took for me. Being good is great, being lucky is even better! DO NOT GET ME GOING ABOUT THE OTHER DEPUTIES INVOLVED! They epitomized almost all of the things that can go bad!!!

1) Keep your gun about two to three steps from your bed. That make you wake up BEFORE you get your gun in hand.
2) Count heads. Wife, check; kid 1, check; kid 2, check (etc); dog, check; cat, check; etc. etc
3) Grab gun AND flashlight!
4) Give phone to wife to call LEO.
5) Do what you have to do.
If you and wife are alone, defend the bedroom. Kids at home, defend the hallway. I usually recommend checking out the house ONLY after five minutes or so of “listening”. I my case, I wait until my 127 pound Belgian Malinois stops barking and growling and my 80 pound Boxer brings me a leg or arm! I love dogs!!!

In the confined space within a house, things go FAST, mere split seconds, not seconds! “Working the pie” is just one of the seven topics EJ covers and there just is NOT enough time to mentally do the “checklist” during an “encounter”. Concealment is NOT cover, but trying to compute your geographic location relative to the wall studs and frame just isn’ t going to happen. Same for “should I go to one knee or…”

For one thing, since most of us are NOT “high speed, low drag ” operators, we don’t bend, flex, go prone, go kneeling, etc. without a plan and/or something breaking or tearing!

One solid piece of advice, practice dry firing!!! Do it in almost every location in which “contact” may occur, i.e. front door are, back door area, hallway, etc. Skip the pantry, laundry room unless it is a foyer to the back door. And if it is like mine, using the washer or dryer as cover ain’t going to happen. Now that second refrigerator, that’s another story! It’s YOUR house! Learn it! Know it! Know just where you can and cannot (should not) shoot.

And one more thing. A flashlight, especially one of these new, high intensity, LED lights. Smack one of those on an unwanted “guest” and they will be seeing stars for seconds to come. BIG advantage. Don’t sweat that “they’ll see me” crap about using a flashlight. NO ONE eats enough carrots to have that good enough night vision to start throwing lead without KNOWING ABSOLUTELY the target. Light them up and shoot as needed.

You can also set up your house so you know where the hidden switches to the surprise dazzling spotlights are located (and which switches are dummies connected to nothing, for the burglar to fiddle with all he wants). Hidden switches can also be run to remote control solenoid operated switches in door jambs, which can make doors open for you only, close for the bad guy when you hit the right buttons, and even trap the burglar between electrically controlled doors so he isn’t going anywhere as long as he can’t bust out of mechanically strong doors, barred windows, and walls. Pressure mat sensors under rugs at doors and windows can send you a signal the instant a burglar steps on them. The signal can be to sound a loud alarm to scare the burglar away, sound a silent bright light alarm to wake you up in bed, and/or alert the police and/or call your cell phone if you are away. Why give the criminal sucker an even break?

Good info. I had an instructor teach me the same pistol hold as you showed, with one exception that I found very useful. You lock both elbows then you pull the cover hand back slightly. It locks and steadies my pistol better and the sight picture is more secure.

Great presentation, Just wanted to Thank You for all your doing. After listening to you on the survival summit, I purchased your book for my sons and family.
One question for you, you have said in one of past videos that if you use shotgun for home defense, you recommend 20 Guage, which I agree with. Could you or have you ever shown how to utilized a shotgun in house for home protection? Trying to utilize your videos with pistol using shotgun. Some family and friends only own a home protection small barreled shotgun (18.5″ barrel). It is quite the challange to try and pie a corner with one of these shotguns.
Thank You

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